Oil Rises After Report Turkey Attacked Kurdish Rebels in Iraq

(Bloomberg) — Crude oil rose for a third day in New York on concern shipments from Iraq may be disrupted after the Turkish military attacked bases of Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq.

Turkish jets bombed eight sites in northern Iraq today where the military suspected Kurdish rebels were setting up camp, the military said in a statement on its Web site. The strikes this morning targeted mountain caves and other shelters in the Zap region of neighboring northern Iraq. Iraq exports crude oil through its northern pipeline to Turkey.


“There are a lot of flashpoints being created by the geopolitical flux,” said V. Raghuraman, senior adviser of energy at the Confederation of Indian Industry, the nation’s biggest industry body. “There are so many flare-ups — Iraq, Nigeria, Iran and Venezuela — that I don’t see any silver lining now. Prices will stay around the current levels.”

Crude oil for February delivery gained as much as 67 cents, or 0.7 percent, to $94.80 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It traded at $94.44 a barrel at 1:04 p.m. London time. Prices have risen 55 percent this year.

Bloomberg